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There are many reasons as to why people prefer not to buy CDs. First, they are expensive. Second, with societies technological advancements, using them is inconvenient. Condry states, “A student who reports never using p2p software because of ‘ethical concerns’ still thinks that a more appropriate price for music would be 50 cents/song or $3/albu

m” (2004). I completely agree. Going out to the store to buy a CD is inconvenient, especially when you only like a few songs off the CD. Then you have to company the CD to your computer and transfer it to your listening device. The whole process is just….inconvenient. I would much rather just download it and transfer only the songs I want. Even of it is from a source like iTunes. Another fact is cost. I think that this is the biggest reason why people download music illegally. Spending over a dollar on one song through itunes is expensive, especially if you want to download a whole album. Downloading one song fro every artist you like could cost a fortune! And with the constant new music being produced…students just cannot afford to buy music on top of all other expenses.

I understand that it takes a lot of work to produce a song/album, but I believe that if song/album prices were lowered the industry would profit because buying would be more affordable. McCourt & Burkart state that that recording industry claims to loose $300 million per year to pirate recordings (2003). In addition, “…a report prepared for the recording industry predicted that by 2002, an estimated 16 percent of all US music sales, or $985 million, would be lost to on-line piracy” (McCourt & Burkart, 2003).

To deal with the issue of piracy, the industry needs to lower prices to make it more affordable for consumers. Also, making the music more accessible would also, I believe, help with the problem.

-Ola

References

Condry, I. (2004). Cultures of Music Piracy. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 343-363.